Chapter 108: To Weber's!
"Let's buy you some new clothes!"
"Eehh. Do we need to? I can just wear what I am wearing now"
Antoinette was trying her best to drag Viel out of her office. She needed some time to rest as well, might as well take a walk outside and have some fun while picking out clothes for Viel to wear.
If she considers it like dressing up her own life size doll, she is sure she can let out some stress from being stuck in her office all day for the past year. Antoinette thought that with her being promoted as the Guild's leader, she could finally take a much needed vacation whenever she wants to.
But alas, with the rise in pay, also came the rise of the hours she was needed in the guild. She hasn't even stepped out of the office for almost more than half a year now.
And so, using the excuse of buying her star adventurer some new clothes, she can finally step outside… since it is work related, or so she tried to convince herself.
"I said let's go!", Antoinette shouted, dragging Viel by the collars outside of the guild.
"Aah, fresh air", Antoinette said as soon as she felt the sun on her skin, "So, where do you usually buy your clothes?"
"...I don't know", Viel said.
"What do you mean?"
"All my clothes were given to me by the other adventurers"
"What!? Who!?", Antoinette almost jumped, "Ugh, don't answer that. Let me see…"
Antoinette then placed her hand on her chin, "Oh, let's go to Weber's! With your money, I am sure you can afford everything there!"
With her excited tone, she once again grabbed Viel and dragged him throughout the city. Viel reluctantly followed Antoinette before they reached a boutique with a fancy signage, consisting of a thread and a needle.
"Fufufu", Antoinette laughed skittishly. She had always wanted to go to this shop, but could not as her meager salary could not even afford a single thread from Weber's.
The store was also surrounded by other boutiques with fancy signages, and Antoinette could not wait to check out each one of them. But for now, their quest was to buy Viel a much needed change of wardrobe… and maybe also her.
And so, with the ringing of a bell and a very excited Antoinette, they entered the store. Antoinette's eyes glittered as she saw the huge selection of beautiful patterns that were hanging themselves everywhere.
"Welcome, esteemed guests!", as soon as the two of them entered, a slew of female attendants quickly bowed towards them.
"What can we get- Oh", but when the attendant on the front saw Antoinette and Viel, a frown immediately formed on her face. She was the most senior of the group, and she knows a window shopper when she sees one. And the two in front of them definitely fitted the criteria.
Even though the younger one was as beautiful as a noble, the clothes that she was wearing were, if the senior attendant was to be honest, exuded poverty. While the older one? She looked like she has been wearing the same clothes for weeks now.
And so, with a final judging look towards Viel and Antoinette, she beckoned at one of the attendants and loudly whispered, "This should be a good practice for you, dealing with window shoppers".
The other attendants then chuckled as they did their own business, leaving the young attendant to assist Antoinette and Viel.
Even though Antoinette was excited, it was not enough for her not to notice that they were belittled. She was about to drag Viel outside the shop, when the young attendant approached them.
"Hello, would you like to look at Mr. Weber's new selections?", the young attendant smiled softly.
Seeing the sincere look on the attendant's face, Antoinette sighed as she nodded. They were already here anyway, might as well go all the way.
"O-okay!", the attendant bowed, "Please follow me to the lady's section!"
"No, take us to the men's section", Antoinette quickly said.
"Men's section?", the attendant was confused at first, but when she noticed that the younger one was actually wearing men's garbs, she quickly apologized. "S-sorry! I thought the young gentleman was a lady! N-no, what am I saying!?"
The young attendant was currently making herself even more flustered, enough to want to dig herself into a hole.
"It's fine", Antoinette chuckled, "He doesn't mind"
"What? Of course I-"
Before Viel can even finish his words, Antoinette covered his mouth. "Please, bring us to the men's section first"
"Of course, right this way please!", the attendant bowed again before guiding the two further inside the shop.
"Ah! This is nice!", not even a second of reaching the men's section, something immediately caught Antoinette's eye. "Try this on!"
But when she was nearing the garment, another caught her eye. "N-no! This one! Try this one!".
Viel wanted to back away as soon as he saw Antoinette's seemingly crazed eyes. The only time that Viel saw Antoinette like this was when she heard the increase of her salary when she was assigned as the new leader of the guild.
"P-please, ma'am. Have a seat first", the attendant stuttered as she assisted the crazed Antoinette to a nearby sofa, "Would you like some tea while I assist the young master try out the clothes?"
Antoinette breathed heavily for a while, before calming down and nodding towards the young attendant.
And so, after giving Antoinette some tea, she guided Viel inside the fitting area, carrying the numerous clothes that Antoinette had chosen.
"Would you like me to help you in undressing your shirt, young master?", the young attendant said.
"Ehh… no need", Viel said as he unbuttoned his shirt. He could not help but sigh, does he really need to fit all of these clothes? They look like they would fit, anyhow.
"Okay", the young attendant calmly stepped to the side. In truth, she was nervous. The beautiful boy in front of her seems to be only a bit younger than her, and she was at the age where romance was starting to bloom. And so, with a few glances, she waited until Viel had unbuttoned his shirt completely.
She then gently picked up one of the clothes that Antoinette chose and approached the boy in front of her.
"Let me assist you, young maste-!", she almost choked as she got closer to Viel. She was used to boys of her age to have scrawny bodies, but the boy in front of her… It wasn't noticeable when he was still wearing his shirt, but he had lines curving all over his body.
"Miss?"
"Y-yes! Here you go!", the young attendant awoken from her stupor as she help Viel to fit the clothes.
Were these two really just window shoppers? She had not spent that much time working in Weber's, but the boy in front of her had a much better looking skin than those aristocrats that usually visited their store, even the ladies.
Outside the fitting room, Antoinette finally totally calmed herself down as she drank the tea leisurely. She then laughed quietly as she imagined how Viel would look with the clothes she picked. It would also be good for Viel to have some kind of uniform for people to associate it with him… and also to the guild.
Once again, countless excited thoughts were born in her mind.
"What? You're still here?"
Suddenly, her wild imaginations were disrupted when he heard a conceited voice coming from behind. It was the senior attendant from earlier.
"And where did you get that tea?", the senior attendant harrumphed as she marched towards Antoinette, who was peacefully sitting on the sofa, "Please, miss. May I ask you to calmly leave the store? We have other actual guests to assist"
Antoinette's eyes twitched as she heard the senior attendant's condescending tone. This was her first time going in a fancy store, if this was how they treat their new customers, how are they even earning money? Or staying open, for that matter.
And so, with a sigh. Antoinette continued sipping on her tea, trying her best to ignore the woman that was sullying her experience.
"Miss, did you not hear me?", the senior attendant's voice started to get louder, catching the attention of the other guests that were inside the store.
"Oh, isn't that…", soon, murmurs could be heard from the other guests.
Seeing that this window shopper was blatantly ignoring her, she could not help but grab the woman's hand. "Miss!", she shouted.
This caused the teacup that Antoinette was holding to slip from her hand and fall to the floor, shattering it into pieces and spilling the tea all over the place.
"See what you did!?", the senior attendant hollered.
Okay, this is enough. Antoinette thought as she stood up aggressively. But before she could confront the woman, a queer voice came from behind.
"What is going on here!?"
"Mr. Weber!", seeing who the owner of the voice was, the senior attendant quickly bowed with respect, "You have no need to concern yourself with this, I am just dealing with a rowdy loiterer."
"Then please do it quietly!", Mr. Weber hollered, "We have other guests-"
Before he could finish his words, he looked at the loiterer that her senior attendant was trying to get rid of.
But his eyes could not help but widen when he realized who it was.
"M-madam Antoinette!?", Mr. Weber stuttered.
"...M...madame?", hearing her boss' panicked stutter, the senior attendant quickly felt shivers crawl down her spine.
Of course Mr. Weber knew who Antoinette was. He was there during Antoinette's inauguration as the new head of the adventurer's guild. He then looked at the spilled tea that was on the floor, and then towards Antoinette's clearly pissed off expression.
With a gulp, he slowly approached Antoinette. "M-madam Antoinette, please forgive my staff. They-"
"Antoinette, are you sure this looks good on me?"
But it was then that Mr. Weber almost died in shock. Even more so than Antoinette, he quickly knew who the boy was that stepped out of the fitting room.
"...Mr. Voice?"
The Gold Rank adventurer, Mr. Voice. But even more importantly… a pretty close friend of the Royal family.